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Only three out of 130 infected people have survived over the past 50 years

Kansas health officials suggest wearing nose plugs in fresh water

A brain-eating amoeba that lurks in fresh water has prompted warnings from Kansas officials after it killed a 9-year-old girl.

Hally Yust was an avid water skier and spent the past few weeks swimming in several bodies of fresh water. She died last week from Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating parasite that lives in warm, standing water.

At Hally's funeral Monday, her family wore matching T-shirts with the logo of her water-skiing club, CNN affiliate WDAF said. Relatives honored the young athlete by announcing the Hally Yust Women's Basketball Scholarship at Kansas State University.

"Her life was taken by a rare amoeba organism that grows in many different fresh water settings. We want you to know this tragic event is very, very rare, and this is not something to become fearful about."

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'It just causes destruction'

While Naegleria fowleri infections are rare, they can have devastating effects.

"The amoeba ... finds itself way back in our noses and then can work its way into our central nervous system, around our brains," said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "And once it's there, it just causes destruction."

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The extreme rarity and randomness of infections can make it difficult to predict where they might occur.

"It is unknown why certain persons become infected with (Naegleria fowleri) while millions of others exposed to warm recreational fresh waters do not, including those who were swimming with people who became infected," the CDC said.

The Kansas health department advises swimmers to use nose plugs when swimming in fresh water.

It also suggests not stirring up the sediment at the bottom of shallow freshwater areas and keeping your head above the water in hot springs and other untreated thermal waters.

But Naegleria fowleri is far from the biggest danger in summertime water activities. While 34 people were infected with the amoeba in the U.S. between 2004 and 2013, there were more than 34,000 drowning deaths in the United States between 2001 and 2010, the CDC said.